We are a texting society: 97 percent of Americans say they use their phones to text. Most physicians understand the value of secure texting within the context of care coordination, and are overwhelmingly receptive to using HIPAA secure text to communicate with other clinical staff. Not so, when patients are concerned. Doctors often have reservations … Continue reading Doctor-Patient HIPAA Secure Texting & P4P Payment Models

The 2015 release of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ sepsis management bundle has created a sense of urgency for U.S. hospitals to address sepsis as a medical emergency. In the U.S., mortality from sepsis is estimated to be greater than the number of deaths from AIDS, prostate cancer and breast cancer combined. The … Continue reading 3 Ways Sentinel Empowers Nurses As Sepsis First Responders

Sepsis Is One of the Leading Causes of Death in the United States The incidence rate of hospitalizations with severe sepsis increased up to threefold in the last decade, according to a large scale retrospective study. (Source: National Institutes of Health) Mortality from sepsis is estimated to be greater than mortality from AIDS and … Continue reading 20 Facts About Sepsis Your Medical Staff Needs to Know

The role of the home health aide (HHA) is expanding – and that’s leading to better care as well as cost savings. According to this HuffPost article, in a pilot program in the Bronx, in which HHAs are using Uniphy Health’s Caregiver tablet app (previously known as Practice Unite), emergency room visits have declined substantially. The … Continue reading ER Visits Have Declined When Home Health Aides Use mHealth App

The recent death of Muhammad Ali is a solemn reminder of the life-threatening nature of sepsis. Sepsis arises from an infection and, if left undetected, can damage multiple organ systems, causing them to fail. Sepsis is a leading cause of death in acute care settings; the elderly and those in poor health are most vulnerable. … Continue reading The Role of Predictive Analytics & mHealth in Tackling Sepsis

Quality of care is based on two metrics, patient outcomes and patient satisfaction. Implementing tools that enhance patient satisfaction has become one of the main focuses of healthcare IT teams today.

Nurses and other clinicians have long relied on overhead pages to communicate with physicians scattered across hospitals. Providing a quiet environment for patients, as a result, has been a difficult aim for most hospitals to achieve. Luckily, the technology now exists for clinicians to quickly and quietly communicate with physicians. By utilizing a secure messaging, mHealth app for clinical staff, this hospital … Continue reading Hospital Improves HCAHPS Scores With Secure Messaging App

Despite the rapid growth in mHealth, healthcare organizations are still struggling to identify and deploy mHealth tools that enable them to deliver value-based care. Only a small minority of mHealth tools are addressing the IT challenges preventing care coordination. The care coordination challenge According to a recent survey, nearly half of ACOs are … Continue reading Is The mHealth Sector Ignoring Coordinated Care Challenges?

On the surface secure texting apps may appear to be same but in reality there are many features and functions that make some more invaluable than others for healthcare organizations. We interviewed healthcare IT executives and CIOs to determine what drove the most ROI for their organization. The nine capabilities covered below played a key … Continue reading 9 Most Requested Secure Messaging App Features & Functions

One-size-fits-all patient engagement apps have the potential to do more harm than good, if they are not configured to address the functional and design standards of providers’ target patient populations. Many patients simply stop using mHealth apps if they find it difficult to navigate to functions that are relevant to their needs. For this reason, … Continue reading 4 Requirements Of Well-Adopted mHealth Apps For Patient Engagement

Patients are being encouraged to assume greater responsibility over their care decisions and make medical decisions in collaboration with physicians. For chronic disease sufferers—who by 2025 will represent almost half of Americans—outside support will become more essential as their daily care routine grows more complex. By expanding the care circle to include caregivers and family … Continue reading Engaging Patients In Coordinated Care Circles With Secure Messaging

In order to truly engage patients through mobile apps, improving the patient experience prior to and following care visits is essential. Patient experience improvement is an objective that should be addressed during the patient engagement app selection process. Here are 6 features and functions that your patient app should include to effectively improve the patient … Continue reading 6 Ways Secure Messaging Apps Boost Patient Experience

HIStalk interviewed our CEO, Adam Turinas, on where the secure text messaging industry is heading, and how Practice Unite is ushering hospitals into this new future. Here are some highlights: “When you look across the market right now, the primary buyers for mobile communications solutions are the CIOs, the IT teams for the various healthcare … Continue reading What Does the Future Hold for Secure Messaging? [HIStalk Interview]

At its best, communication failures cause delays in diagnosis and treatment. At its worst, patients’ health can rapidly deteriorate. A recent review of reports released by the Joint Commission found that communication failure between clinicians and patients is at the root of over 70 percent of serious adverse health outcomes in hospitals. For this reason, … Continue reading Improving The Doctor-Patient Relationship With mHealth

Patient engagement apps can enable healthcare organizations to successfully encourage patients’ behavioral change and self-management, with the right functionality. These apps can make it easy for patients to proactively manage their overall health and pursue specific health goals so long as they keep patients informed, facilitate patient communication and simplify self-management. Let’s take a closer … Continue reading Can mHealth Improve Patient Engagement & Self-Management?